“Speak when you are angry and you will make the best
speech you will ever regret.” ~~ Dr. Laurence J. Peter
Welcome to the first meeting
in September blog.
Our toastmaster
today was Barb.
Naser was the Contest Chair.
We had 2 timers – Jessica D and Jung. Jean and Lynne were the Sergeant-at-arms. Pauline and Dan
collected and counted ballots.
There were no Grammarian, Ah-Counter and
Evaluator roles.
Amritha
was our first speech
contestant today. The title of her speech was “The Poky Little Fellow”. Through her speech, Amritha shared with us how Oscar
– their German shepherd puppy became an integral part of her family. The day they
brought him home, little did she know about the challenges and excitement that
were about to follow.
Oscar’s arrival fine-tuned her mothering skills.
With two toddlers, she now had to learn to potty train a puppy. Eventually she
became a pro at it. At 4 months of age, his curiosity almost cost him his life,
after a year long therapy, thankfully Oscar recovered well.
Today, Oscar is 5 and ½ years old. He has become her
personal life coach. Fearless, confident and bold – he strives to win over her all
the time. She told us how she takes the patience test every day while on walks
with Oscar which enormously improves her ability to handle stress. Living with
Oscar, she has learnt to become a better disciplined person.
If anyone is looking for a life coach or is looking
for ways to add variety to their life, Oscar can help you and bring the best out
of you.
Our
second speech contestant was Dan Dan.
The topic of
her speech was “
Share”.
She shared with us 3 stories from her life with important messages. As a child,
Dan Dan grew up in China with extended family around. Sharing everything among
cousins was an integral part of their culture. After an incident of not able to
get what she wanted (a ripe tomato), she soon learnt her lesson, “An opportunity
that comes should be taken without second thought.”
Her
second story- while in school, she once encouraged her classmates to boycott the
school vaccination program. Eventually they all get caught. Being the leader,
she was the first to be punished. Her second message “Do not share your
punishments with others.”
In
her third story, she told us growing up she ran away from her mother after
doing some mischief. Eventually, when she got home, she would find herself in
more trouble. She says “Never run away from your trouble as they bring you more
trouble.”
Our
third speech contestant was Kathy. The
topic of her speech was “Office Coworkers.”
She described and enacted in much detail few of the unique office coworkers many
of us might deal with on a day to day basis.
In
her special set of people belong those who find ways to skip work, while away office
time and eventually develop an annoying personality whom everyone wants to ignore.
There are some others who insist on parking their car in a particular spot and
do not tolerate anyone else taking that luxury away from them. Some would be
extra clean and tidy making sure not even a pen is misplaced. Then there are
the oversharing people who talk about everything in their life. As she
concludes her speech, she makes it a point that it is these variety of people
that make our world round.
The
Table Topics Contestants were Linda, Robert,
Jim and Devi. All of them were asked
to speak about one important change that happened in their life and what they
learnt from it.
Linda shared
with us that as a college graduate, she learnt to make better connections and
ask for help. She has decided to go out of her way and share her interests with
people. She has set a goal for herself to interview her role models – to talk,
learn, reach out to them and write down their stories.
Robert spoke
about the experience of sharing his home with his daughter-in-law and her 2
teenage kids. In order to welcome them, he had to make space in his home. This meant
moving things. The challenge was to keep his things still visible so that he
could see and use them. This incident though chaotic was a good learning experience
for him.
Jim
spoke about how the decision to move away from a
catholic seminary after spending
10 years led him to be a psychologist. Having made many friends, the decision
was difficult since it was a choice between friendship and the fact that being
a priest was not his calling. While making choices, Jim encourages us to pause,
reflect and then make a choice.
Devi shared
with us her experience of how she overcame her fear of speaking to boys. Devi was
educated in a girls only school, and belonged to an orthodox household. As a
result, she never spoke to boys. While in college, she was fearful of boys as she
was advised by her mother not to talk to boys. Gradually she overcame her fear only
to be advised by her professor by final year to talk less with boys.
Winner
of the Humorous Speech contest is Amritha.
Winner
of the Table Topics Contest is Jim.
Both
of Amritha and Jim will represent our club in the area level contest scheduled to be held
on Sept 24.
We
had 22 members and 4 guests attend our meeting today.
Our
members who attended included: Amritha, Andrew, Barb, Dan, Dan Dan, Dave, Devi,
Diana, Grace, Jean, Jessica D., Jessica K., Jim, Julie, Jung, Kathy, Linda,
Liz, Lynne, Naser, Pauline, Robert.
Our Guests were: Thenseena, Jann K., Jennifer O'N., WooYun C.
Respectfully
Submitted,
Amritha
Imandi, Secretary
Public
Speaking Northwest #9406
